Pre-manufactured wooden trusses greatly facilitate the construction of buildings and other structures. While these pre-manufactured trusses are strong and reliable in service, during construction they can topple if they are not properly supported. Moreover, to ensure that the trusses perform properly in service, it is important to make sure that they are properly spaced.
Presently, when trusses are used in construction they are placed in position and lateral braces are nailed across the top chords of the trusses to maintain the spacing and position of the trusses. As the trusses are tied together in the structure, for example by applying sheathing, the lateral braces are removed. This temporary attachment and subsequent removal of lateral braces is time consuming and thus expensive. Moreover, while this method of lateral bracing supports the trusses during construction, it provides no support after the braces are removed.
Various attempts have been made to help properly space and provide temporary support for trusses during construction. See for example, Baumker, Jr., U.S. Pat. No. 4,704,829; Allen, U.S. Pat. No. 3,959,945; Dean, U.S. Pat. No. D 318,785; and Krueger, U.S. Pat. No. D 293,416. However, these have generally been elaborate devices that were too expensive and cumbersome to find practical application in the field. Moreover, these were typically temporary devices that had to be removed before construction was completed, with attendant labor costs, and thus they did not provide any post-construction support of the truss.
It would be desirable to provide a more simple and economical clamp apparatus which is operative once attached to a first truss member to capture and temporarily secure a second adjacent truss member, until the second truss member can be secured with appropriate space members and the like. It would also be desirable to provide an apparatus that assists in the erection of a truss, stabilizes and spaces the truss member with a desired space, and braces the truss to another previously erected truss.